Allen Peck, a Madison, Wisconsin resident, discusses his career in the Army and his experience as a prisoner of war in the Philippines during World War II. Peck was born in Fort Wayne (Indiana) but grew up in Denver (Colorado). He describes his schooling in Denver in the 1920s and mentions he attended the University of Colorado-Boulder. After two years there, Peck petitioned his senator to nominate him for West Point. He mentions his mother pushed him to apply in honor of his late father, a veteran of the Spanish American War. Peck describes life at West Point in detail: the strict discipline, challenging classes, hazing, and importance of rank. He comments the cadets came from a variety of regional and socioeconomic backgrounds. Peck touches upon prejudice, remarking a homosexual cadet was forced to leave West Point. Peck also noticed regional tensions between Southerners and Northeasterners. He recalls Benjamin O. Davis, a talented African-American cadet, was harassed by white southerners and was not assigned a roommate because of segregation. Peck remarks Davis later became a lieutenant general and commanded the Tuskegee Airmen. In 1936, Peck graduated from West Point and was assigned to Fort George Wright (Washington). He illustrates the lack of funding for Army in 1930s; his company trained with World War I rifles and did not have enough money to travel to Fort Lewis (Washington) to practice maneuvers. Peck observes that his four-year contract was almost over when World War II broke out. In 1940, he married a woman from Spokane (Washington) and was transferred to the Philippines. Peck claims the U.S. military in the Philippines knew that the Japanese were ready for an attack, but the general population did not. He describes plush accommodations and officer club privileges at Zamboanga (Philippines). Peck mentions his wife and other Army spouses were "bored to death" partly because each officer had servants who cooked, cleaned, and did laundry. To pass time, Peck's wife taught at an Episcopalian mission school. Throughout the interview, Peck analyzes relations between officers and enlisted men and emphasizes that there was little fraternization. Peck discusses in detail the various ethnic groups, tribes, and languages in the Philippines. In particular, he covers the Moro, a Muslim tribe on Mindanao, and their practice of juramentado, suicidal assassinations against Christians or enemies. He also describes Japanese immigrants in Zamboanga and a Japanese spy who ran a Kodak camera store. In May 1941, all families of military personnel, including Peck's wife, were sent back to the U.S. because of escalating Japanese attacks in the region. Peck outlines the Japanese takeover of southern Asia. Now a Major, Peck was sent to an isolated town on the island of Mindanao (Philippines) to train the Philippine Army. Peck characterizes Filipinos as "good athletes and good soldiers" and states "there was absolutely no question of their loyalty." He remembers hearing a broadcast from Boston announcing the bombings of Pearl Harbor and Clark Field. Peck states when General MacArthur left the Philippines, the troops felt "alone" and "stuck." He criticizes General Wainwright for surrendering the Philippines when officers spread across the islands felt they had the men and training to fight back. On Mindanao, Peck was isolated from other American commanders. As the Japanese began to invade, Peck stole a Dodge and some gas in an attempt to return to the main base and find out what was going on, but he didn't get far because he'd stolen diesel fuel. Peck reveals his company was running low on food, so he bought cattle from a local famer by writing him phony checks from the U.S. Treasury. Next, Peck describes his capture by the Japanese. He had been ordered to retreat, but he and his men were caught on the wrong side of the river, and U.S. troops had blown the bridge. Peck became separated from his men when he returned to base to disarm mounted machine guns so the Japanese could not use them. Peck explains he and other POWs were brought to a former Philippine Army training camp in May 1942. They remained there until November 1942, when they were moved to a former penal colony on Davao (Philippines). Peck claims all the convicts were released to make room for the POWs. He describes a typical day at the Davao camp, working on tropical fruit farms, sleeping on the floor, and eating the bare essentials. Peck also describes the wells, latrines, and barracks. He notes that the Japanese did not respect U.S. Army ranks, but eventually they allowed American officers to supervise their own men in the fields. Peck tells of going on an unusual mission: the Japanese gave him a jeep to return to his former base on Mindanao and look for any Americans who were wounded or left behind. Following this mission, he ate dinner with a Japanese colonel and his interpreter. Peck characterizes Japanese officers as brutalizing their own soldiers for small mistakes, stating that the Japanese "killed ostentatiously" and that the punishments "didn't fit the crime." He also addresses escape attempts by POWs and graphically describes the torture and execution of two Filipino prisoners; they were tied to posts and killed by a firing squad to deter other POWs from escaping. Nevertheless, Peck reveals a couple POWs in the Air Corps who worked as machinists at the Davao camp successfully escaped to Australia. In a roundabout manner, Peck describes the various prisoner of war camps he was transferred to. After Davao, the POWs were sent to Bilibid prison in Manila (Philippines). There, Peck witnessed U.S. planes bombing Manila Bay. He tells how the Japanese loaded the POWs onto a cramped ship in Manila Bay that was bombed by the U.S. Air Force. Peck describes serious casualties among the POWs. Eventually, the POWs were taken from Manila Bay to Lingayen Gulf (Philippines) where they transferred to another ship. Peck describes sharing a crowded cargo hold with horses and having little to eat. Peck states they sailed to Taiwan, where their ship was bombed again. Peck describes arriving on a third ship in Mogi (Japan) in the winter and being given new clothes: woolen Australian Army shirts and boots with no socks. Peck was finally taken to Mukden (now Shenyang) in Manchuria where he remained for the rest of the war. Peck spends time discussing the diet of the POWs. They were mostly fed rice with leafy vegetables. He reveals that, in Manchuria, POWs working in rice paddies would occasionally drown one of the caribou that pulled the plows, and the Japanese would allow the prisoners to cook the meat. He also states POWs in the Philippines sometimes captured snakes or sharks to eat. During his voyage from the Philippines to Japan, food became scarce. At one point, each POW was given only one spoonful of rice for an entire day. In Mukden (Manchuria), the food improved: POWs were given soy beans, corn, and millet, but Peck recalls ironically that the soy beans were too rich for the malnourished POWs and upset their stomachs. Peck describes many illnesses afflicting the soldiers including: malaria, tuberculosis, malnutrition, scurvy, beriberi, ulcers and dysentery. He explains malaria was so common that the Japanese doctors would give a sick POW one day off work but expect him to work again the next day. He reveals the Americans had their own Army doctors who examined POWs at night, but they had no medicine and only a few unsterile tools to work with. He theorizes that the Japanese themselves did not have enough medical supplies to go around. In 1945 at Mukden, Peck recalls learning about the atomic bombing of Japan from POWs who worked in factories and had contact with Koreans and Manchurian civilians. Peck describes the Russians liberating the camp and stripping the Japanese officers of their weapons in a showy ceremony. The POWs remained in camp for several days, and Peck reflects "there wasn't a whole lot of change except that you felt free." Finally, a team of American airmen dropped into the camp and evacuated POWs based on medical need. Peck was with the second group of evacuees because he was suffering from diarrhea and malnutrition. He outlines his trip home via Sian (China), Kunming (China), Manila, Guam, Honolulu (Hawaii), and California. Peck states he arrived back in the U.S. on September 6, 1945, relatively soon after the war ended. He was transferred from hospital to hospital on his way home, and he ended up at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington D.C., where his mother was living. Upon his release from the hospital, he went on vacation to a Leave Center at Santa Barbara (California) and joined his wife who was with her family in Spokane (Washington). Peck mentions that he had no long-term health affects from being a prisoner of war, but in 1946, he was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis in Spokane and given six months leave from the Army. Peck ends the interview alluding to (but not covering in depth) his service in the Korean War.
